Clothesline retainer



Patented June 9, 1936 UNITED, STATES 2,043,716 ,cLornEsuNE RETAINER James J. Sloan, Stow, Ohio, assignor to Roy Bishop, New Milford, Ohio Application November 10, 1934, Serial No. 752,521 Renewed May 1, 1936 4 Claims.

This invention relates to clothes line retainers.

The invention contemplates the provision of an article of this class which has the capacity to grip and firmly hold any portion of a clothes line, either the end or any intermediate part thereof, when the clothes line is moved into a rope retaining notch, the rope being so firmly engaged that it may not be longitudinally moved through the retainer, while at the same time it is possible to readily remove the rope manually by backing it out of the notch. The retainer is therefore adapted to facilitate the erection of clothes lines and the removal thereof and wholly eliminates the necessity of tying the clothes line to supporting objects or forming retaining knots therein of any kind.

Preferably the novel retainer is formed from a single continuous metallic member, such as a steel wire of uniform cross-section, being bent or folded in the process of fabrication into the desired shape. When constructed in this manner the resulting retainer presents an attractive appearance, free from angles or cutting edges, possesses a certain resiliency or springiness which is desirable in certain circumstances, and the cost of fabrication is slight.

In the accompanying drawing one form of the retainer is illustrated by way of example, but it will be appreciated that minor changes may be made and other embodiments of the invention devised in adapting the invention to special circumstances.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the retainer, attached to a supporting member;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the retainer; and

Figure 3 is a side elevation of the retainer, showing it attached to a supporting member.

The retainer comprises essentially a single metallicmember, preferably a relatively short length of steel wire ofcircular cross-section, which in the process of manufacture is bent into the form shown in the drawing. It is first bent or folded at itsmid-point, indicated at I, into the general form of a U, the stems of the U being parallel and relatively close together. The stems of the U are then simultaneously bent or folded about a common axis, indicated by the dotted line H in Figure 2, and finally one stem is again foldedor bent so as to comprise an angularly disposed bracing portion l2. The end of the remaining stem is threaded as at I3 so that the retainer as an entirety may be secured to a supporting structure generally indicated at M. The threads i 3 may be formed at any stage in the process of manufacture of the retainer, and by any suitable process. They may be conveniently formed by a rolling operation and may even be formed as a step preliminary to the bending operations just described. The sequence of operations. may be varied as desired to facilitate manufacture.

The retainer is preferably somewhat springy or resilient, but this is not absolutely essential. The mid-portion of the blank from which the retainer is formed comprises the rope retaining portion-of the completed retainer and provides the rope receiving notch into which the rope, indicated at l5, may be slipped and within which it is retained. Once the rope has been inserted in this rope retaining notch and is firmly pinched between the opposing faces of the members forming the notch, it cannot he slipped axially through the retainer, increased tension on the rope merely drawing it more deeply into the notch and increasing the frictional resistance to axial movement. On the other hand, it may be easily backed out of the notch by pushing it toward the supporting structure, and hence removed. The retainer is useful in not only supporting the ordinary cotton rope but all types of ropes, even wire ropes of a size suitable for clothes lines.

In use a plurality of the retainers are attached to posts, fences, or to the wooden fittings of rooms and the rope stretched from one to the other. It is not necessary to make any knots or tie any loops in the rope as is now customary. The weight of the article suspended on the rope causes the 3 rope to be more tightly engaged by the retainer. Should the rope break between two retainers, the remainder of the rope stretched between other retainers will, of course, be unaffected, which is of great advantage. In the ordinary and usual case, breakage of a rope at one point causes the entire rope to fall, the rope being slidably supported upon hooks and tied at its ends. The bracing portion [2 of the retainer assists in rigidly supporting the same, maintaining the rope retaining portion in the position shown even when the supported rope is heavily loaded.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A clothes line retainer comprising a single length of metallic wire, the mid-section of said wire being U-shaped and the sections of the two end portions thereof which are nearest said mid- 55 section being disposed in a plane which makes an acute angle with the plane of said mid-section, whereby a line retaining V-shaped notch is formed, the outermost section of one end portion being threaded, and the outermost section of the other end portion being disposed in a plane normal to said threaded section, so as to comprise a limiting stop and bracing member.

2. A clothes line retainer comprising a single length of wire, said wire having its mid-section disposed in a plane and adjacent sections of its end portions in a second plane making an acute angle with the first plane, the extreme end of one end portion comprising an attaching means and the extreme end of the other end portion comprising a bracing means.

3. The combination set forth in claim 2 in which said mid-section is in the form of a V and the adjacent sections of the end portions are parallel to each other.

4. The combination set forth in claim 2 in which the extreme end of one of the end portions is threaded for attachment purposes and lies in said second plane, and the extreme end of the other end portion is disposed in a third plane, disposed normally to said threaded end and comprising a bracing member.

JAMES J. SLOAN. 

